


Size Matters

by rowofstars



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-07-26
Updated: 2009-07-26
Packaged: 2018-04-25 11:59:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4959775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rowofstars/pseuds/rowofstars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the week 3 prompt at <a class="i-ljuser-profile" href="http://writerinatardis.livejournal.com/profile"><img class="i-ljuser-userhead"/></a><a class="i-ljuser-username" href="http://writerinatardis.livejournal.com/">writerinatardis</a> , which was that the Doctor has a secret hobby and Rose has just found out about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Size Matters

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't win, but I didn't lose and really that's what matters. I'm here to write again another day. :) Beta'd by the awesome [](http://anepidemic.livejournal.com/profile)[anepidemic](http://anepidemic.livejournal.com/) . Thanks B for helping me to see what you see.

Rose stares in disbelief, head moving slowly back and forth to take in the whole scene as the Doctor moves about, amusing himself in what seems to be a completely empty room. He stops to admire the air a few feet from the right wall, bouncing on the balls of his feet, a pair of blue and red 3-D glasses perched on his nose in place of his usual dark specs.

The squeaky shifting of her trainers alerts him to her presence. He flashes a manic grin as he spins around, pulling the glasses off and shoving them in his suit pocket.

“Rose!” he exclaims, practically vibrating with energy as he rushes to her side. “I thought you were –”

“What’s this room then?” she interrupts, pushing past him and wandering around the space.

It’s large and white with a high arched ceiling and plain marble floor. The Doctor shuts the door softly, and she can see it too is white on the inside and practically invisible when closed. The room is much colder than the rest of the Tardis, and she shivers a bit as the chill of the room sinks in. She has the feeling that there should be something here, that maybe there is, but all she can see is blankness.

She turns back to face him, curious smile peeking at the corners of her mouth. “So? What’re you keeping in here?”

“Oh just a little hobby of mine. Just a collection of sorts really.” He strolls slowly around the edges of the room.

“Collection?” She frowns. “Is that what this is?”

He gives her an incredulous look like she just suggested the banana smoothie might not be the single greatest beverage in the history of the universe.

“What else would you call it?” His arms stretch out to each side, gesturing to the room as a whole.

She’d call it nothing, but instead she’s hesitating and he’s staring, waiting for her to explain her apparent insult of his compilation of – what? There’s nothing detectable here, it’s just bare walls and white marble floor, and she thinks maybe his regeneration a few weeks ago really did go a bit sideways.

“Why don’t you show me?” she offers.

He beams at her, directing her back to the door, facing the near left wall.

“I could show you the bosons first, flashy little things they are, but this is where it all started.” He points vaguely to something at his eye level, she squints, hoping to see something but finding only an empty space. “They’re fermions, simple and small, but that’s where all good hobbies start right?”

She nods and smiles in the usual way that masks the fact she either doesn’t care, or has absolutely no idea what’s he talking about.

“They’re elementary but they are the only ones known to experience all four fundamental interactions! And they have the most brilliant little names,” he continues.

He guides her down the wall, hand on the small of her back like they were walking through a museum, rambling all the while about whatever he thinks he’s seeing. “Up, down, top, bottom, charm and strange.”

Her eyes go wide as the names roll off his tongue followed by sporadic facts about each one like charge and spin. This has to be a sure sign he’s lost it. Her Time Lord is going crazy, talking to walls, and naming them after directions.

“That’s it for the quarks. Over here I keep the leptons.”

He takes another step forward, stopping when he realizes Rose is no longer with him. He turns and catches her eyes, fixed on him, radiating a combination of concern and confusion.

“Rose?”

She swallows the lump in her throat. “Doctor, do you know –” Pausing she tries to think of how she can possibly tell him he’s a certified nutter. “Doctor this room is empty.”

And he laughs.

“Doctor?” She walks towards him slowly, hands held out in front of her because she’s seen people do that on the telly when they’re trying to keep a crazy person calm. Glancing over her shoulder, she realizes she has no idea where the exit is anymore.

“Oh Rose, no no no!” He scurries over, retrieving the glasses from his pocket and unfolding them. “I forgot. You’re eyes can’t see them, you need these.”

Reaching out, Rose accepts the paper glasses warily and slips them on, bending the paper arms behind her ears. She slips them off once, eyes scanning the room, and then pushes them back on. All around the room tiny sparks of light hover and spin, colors bouncing and orbiting, attracting and repelling. She turns around and around trying to see them all at once, skin tingling as they fly past.

“I don’t –” she starts, “They’re so small! What are they?”

“Particles,” he says simply. “They’re supposed to be small, subatomic even. This is all the fundamental and composite particles in the universe, including my personal favorite, the Higgs boson.”

Striding to the far corner of the room, he stands by an ominous field of dark purple. It twinkles like Christmas lights when he sticks his hand out, distorting the edges of the cloud. She comes to stand by his side, her eyes wide with wonder. Her hand inches forward until the tips of her fingers poke the swirling mass. She grins at the cool tickling sensation.

Tilting his head near hers, his voice is just above a whisper in her ear, “Brilliant isn’t it?”

“It’s fantastic! But what’s a Higgs –”

“The Higgs boson is a massive, scalar elementary particle with a zero spin. Some call it the God particle.”

“Why?” she asks, pulling her hand back slowly, looking at the collection of particles with a new sort of reverence.

“Well,” he explains, “to put it simply, these little buggers are sort of responsible for the Big Bang.”

Her head turns sharply. “Seriously? These little purple things made the universe happen?”

“They’re not just _things_ , they’re particles,” he admonishes. “But again, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Let’s just say they provided a vital, necessary mechanism for it. Of course Time Lords called them something else entirely, but a very nice man named Peter Higgs from the University at Edinburgh theorized their existence, and you lot are so fond of naming things after yourselves, I guess the name just stuck.”

“So everything in here is what makes up the universe?”

“Pretty much yeah,” the Doctor replies, tugging idly at his ear.

“Wow.” She pulls off the silly glasses, folding them carefully in her hands. “It’s like seeing the whole universe all at once in one room.”

He rocks back on his heels, looking thoughtfully around the room. “I suppose that’s one way of looking at it. Bit small scale though, doesn’t really reflect the big picture.”

“Are you trying to say that size matters, Doctor?”

He freezes, gaping at her open mouthed until her straight face fractures into a cheeky grin, tongue poking between her teeth. She bumps his shoulder, giggling and linking her arm with his.

“Come on, then,” she says, leading him away from the corner, back towards where she’s pretty sure the door is, “how about we go explore this big picture?”

He smiles, nods and spins her around in the opposite direction, “The door’s over here Rose.”

 


End file.
